


Four Times Leslie Knope was on the Grass and Under the Stars (and One Time She Wasn’t)

by Nutriyum_Addict



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: 5 Times, Elections, F/M, Fluff, Outdoor Sex, Parenthood, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:36:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8598229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nutriyum_Addict/pseuds/Nutriyum_Addict
Summary: Things you said under the stars and in the grass.





	

**February 3, 1985**

“Are you warm enough, pumpkin?”

Ten-year-old Leslie nods at her father’s question, but still he pushes the extra blanket from her room up to her chin. It’s winter but not snowy, just clear, dark, and chilly, as well as about an hour before her bedtime. She can see her breath when she exhales and the grass is crunchy under her parents unzipped sleeping bag.

Her dad is pointing out the Big Dipper to her when her mom joins them, bringing a large bowl of popcorn with her. Leslie sits up and takes the snacks so her parents can snuggle closer together. They’re always cuddling around the house together, it’s kind of gross, actually.

“This summer after I get back from visiting grandma, maybe we’ll all take a trip to Terre Haute and go to the observatory there,” Robert suggests, grabbing a handful of popcorn to munch.

“We should go camping and make a whole family vacation of it,” her mom adds.

She watches as her parents smile at one another and then her dad looks at her and adds, “I think you’re old enough to have your own tent this time. You can work on all of your campaign ideas,” before giving her mom a wink.

They like to stay up late and read with their door shut and talk about boring adult things (their words), and besides, if she has her own tent she can bring as many stuffed animals as she wants. And practice her speeches as late as she wants.

Leslie lies back down again and looks up, the big popcorn bowl balanced on her stomach. It all seems so vast and immense and it makes her feel small, but not necessarily in a bad way. When she gets inside, she wants to make an entry in her ideas journal about it and also start outlining her platform. Her parents said they would even help her videotape a campaign commercial this weekend.

“Which one is Venus again?” Leslie asks and then follows her dad’s pointing finger to gaze up at the sky.

 

**August 20, 2012**

“Okay, I’m on my balcony,” Ben informs her from the small screen.

He’s got a beer in one hand and she watches as he adjusts his own laptop and then smiles at her. He’s still in his dark suit but his striped tie is loosened like he had gotten on Skype with her the moment he got home.

Her big shot DC boyfriend looks tired and she wishes he was here instead so that she could rub his shoulders and listen to him sigh as her fingers worked at the knots. Then they could switch and he could rub hers because dealing with old and racist Councilman Milton is very stressful. As is trying to get half a perm reversed.

But they’re not together in person.

Leslie’s in her backyard, sitting on the grass. She’s very proud of him and what he’s doing but she also really, really misses him. If he were here they could look up at the stars together. Instead, they’ve planned to spend the evening comparing their night skies–Pawnee to DC.

“Can you see anything?” She asks him.

The nation’s capital might have the White House, a waffle truck, and Joe Biden, but you can’t see the stars there like you can in Pawnee. Leslie tells him as much before he can even answer her question.

“Well,” Ben makes a face. “I think you might be right. It’s too bright. You know, with all the city lights around here.”

“I told you Pawnee was better. I can see the Big Dipper and..well, I think that’s all I know for sure. I used to be able to find Venus but…” Leslie trails off before spinning her laptop and pointing it up to the sky. “See?”

“Whoa, babe. That made me kind of dizzy.”

“Sorry,” she laughs out her response, settling her laptop back in her lap and getting comfy on the ground. Maybe she should have grabbed a beer too.

“Hey, since I can’t really see much here, I’m maybe gonna go back inside.”

Leslie frowns. “Oh? Do you need to go? I–”

“No,” he says, raising an eyebrow at her. “No. I’m just going to go back inside where there’s air conditioning. And um…maybe take my pants off and get comfy? But we should definitely stay on.”

She wasn’t quite expecting that, so she laughs again. But also, he’s so, so smart. That’s a really great idea. Who needs pants this late at night? Besides, it makes asking him what he’s wearing much quicker.

“Race you,” she says with a grin, jumping up and running towards her back door.

 

**November 2, 2012**

“Shhhhhhh,” he tells her, gripping her hand tighter and leading her towards the not-quite-familiar-yet backyard. “This isn’t technically ours yet.”

“Yes, it is! We signed the papers,” Leslie says, right before pressing against his back when Ben stops abruptly. “We should be able to–”

“Whoa. You’re right, the yard is huge.”

“I know! I told you! We can put up a volleyball net and make s'mores over there and put up my tent over there. Oh! And a birdhouse in that tree!”

After he’d surprised her at the house and oh yeah, proposed to her, they’d kissed and made-out standing in the empty living room and okay, so maybe Martha had to clear her throat really loudly for them to break apart and for Leslie to realize that she had her hand halfway down his pants.

Oops.

Later, they’d been in her bed for the night when she realized that he’d never actually gotten to see the backyard. The keys weren’t officially available until Monday, but what harm would it be to drive back to the house and just show Ben the back? Even if it was midnight and they’d just thrown coats on over their pajamas.

It’s not really trespassing when you get to move in in three days, right?

“I like it,” he says, turning to smile at her.

She smiles back. Then they’re smiley kissing as they stand pressed together, Ben’s lips as well as his arms keeping her warm against the slight chill.

Then they’re down on the grass. Leslie’s not even sure how that happened.

One minute they were standing and Ben’s tongue was in her mouth and his thumb was circling one of her nipples through the thin material of her sleep shirt and then…he was stretching out beside her on the ground.

There seem to be a lot of _oopses_ tonight.

Leslie giggles when his hand slides down her pants.

“But Ben, it’s not technically our backyard yet.”

He pulls back to look at her, his hand stilling just inside her panties. “Seriously?”

She just cackles in response. “No! I’m just kidding!”

“Oh. Oh good.” The grin is back as he kisses her lips again but this time his fingers are rubbing and exploring and okay, yeah, they should probably christen the backyard.

When she works a hand inside his pajama pants, Ben seems as eager to do this as she is, his head even dipping to her neck to nip at her flesh as she touches him.

“We’re getting married,” Leslie whispers, as she tries to wiggle out of her own pajama pants and underwear–or at least get one leg down and off.

“We’re getting married.”

“And this is our house.”

“It is,” he agrees, finally pushing inside.

They’ve never had sex outside before. They’ve come close, but not full-on boning outside of a room with four walls. So this is…exciting and new.

A first. And also, their first time having engaged sex at their new house.

Leslie likes the way the grass feels on her bare ass and Ben feels wrapped down and around and inside her. Normally, she might try to roll them over but since they’re outside, she figures it’s best if he’s on top.

Leslie’s shirt is pushed up so Ben can run his tongue around her breasts and suck on her nipples, before moving up and sucking and licking the skin of her neck. She uses her own fingers to push herself over the edge as her legs wrap tighter around his hips and yeah, one pajama pant leg is all the way off, while the other is trapped around her knee. Her purple-striped underwear is suffering the same fate.

Ben moans and shudders when he comes seconds later and afterward, neither feels much of a need to move or straighten up any clothing. It’s late and dark and this is their new home.

“I think I have grass stains on my knees,” he tells her with a quiet chuckle.

“I’m pretty sure I have grass stains on my ass,” Leslie reports. “But it’s our new grass, so it’s okay!”

Ben nods and moves his face towards hers for another kiss.

“Hello? Who’s there?” It’s an unfamiliar voice accompanied by the bright beam of a flashlight and soon they see an older man in his own pajamas, right by the row of trees near the east property line.

“Oh god. That’s our new neighbor,” Ben says, eyes widening.

 

**November 9, 2016**

He finally finds them outside.

Leslie’s in the backyard of their new house and a bundled up Sonia is squirming in her lap. He’s relieved of course, but also a little concerned to find his wife and two-year-old daughter out in the yard at three in the morning.

“Hey,” he says, sitting down behind her and wrapping his arms around both of them. Thankfully, the ground is dry because he’s only wearing flannel pajama pants and a t-shirt. So is Leslie. “What’s going on? I woke up and you were gone.”

“Daddy!” Sonia squeals and tries to turn around to look at him.

Ben grasps her little hand in his and gives her a smile and a kiss on the forehead.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. I just couldn’t sleep. So I went to check on the babies and she couldn’t sleep either.”

Ben cuddles closer for warmth, running his palms up and down his wife’s arms. Earlier, she finally fell asleep while crying in his arms, all of the white and blue helium-filled balloons she’d bought that morning still pressed up and trapped against their bedroom ceiling.

Even as she had lightly snored, Ben had laid in bed awake, holding her and feeling angry and hopeless himself. He must have fallen asleep at some point because when he woke up, she was gone.

“It’s cold out here.”

“I put her snowsuit on her.”

It feels good to laugh, even if it’s because their daughter is barely visible under the white puffy covering. “Yeah, she looks like a baby marshmallow. But I was mainly talking about you.”

“I’m fine. I can’t even feel it.”

“Um, that’s not good. Let’s go back inside. We can warm you up and snuggle on the couch,” he says, starting to get up.

“Wait,” Leslie asks and he sits back down, wrapping his arms around her again. “I just want to look at the stars for a few minutes. It makes me feel a little less upset about everything somehow. Also, Ann’s coming out this weekend–emergency Galentine’s Day.”

He nods pushes his face closer to the back of her neck and breathes in the scent of her hair–sugar cookies. That makes him smile even though he also kind of feels like crying himself.

“That’s good. And it’s going to be alright.”

“Is it? I mean, I want to believe that but..this is all so ugly and hateful and I know love is supposed to…” she trails off before she can say that word. “But will it really? Ben, what kind of a world will our daughter live in? I can’t accept this. I refuse to accept this.”

He thinks she says something about this being “ _just like Greenie,_ ” but he doesn’t ask for clarification, only holds her and Sonia tighter. It’s a few minutes before they speak.

“Sonia will live in a world that she helps build. Her and her brothers,” but even as he says it and truly believes it, Ben can feel his eyes start to water with his own shock and frustration at the night’s election results. “The kind that we teach them how to build, despite what happened.”

“Yeah.”

She doesn’t say it very convincingly, but he knows she’ll bounce back. And she’ll be mad and all riled up and passionate and intense and amazing and all the things he admires so much about her.

After her initial greeting, even Sonia seems somber right now. Or maybe…Ben moves around to look at his daughter and yep, she’s completely out, eyes closed and body resting back against Leslie’s chest. All that’s missing are adorable little toddler-snores.

“Our baby marshmallow is asleep. Let’s take her back upstairs.”

“Okay.” Leslie lets Ben take Sonia from her arms and then she gets up.“It’s too cloudy to see stars tonight anyway.”

 

**November 17, 2011**

Under different circumstances, Leslie might be spreading a warm plaid blanket out on the perfectly manicured lawn–.000003 square miles of lush green Indiana-grown grass to be exact.

Ben would sneakily be meeting her at their park and they would make-out under the stars and celebrate the state’s newest Smallest Park ( _suck it, Terryville_ ). But instead, she’s sitting on the cold bench in the dark, waiting to finally break it off with him for good. It’s what Ben wants and she needs to stop steamrolling him, so…

This was her choice after all. They broke up because of her political campaign–her dream.

Leslie doesn’t even know what she’s going to say, just that she’s going to be less intense and more considerate when she says it. It’s all in her head but when she tries to practice the words out loud, all she can think about is how much she misses him.

How she thinks about him all the time.

When Leslie finally sees Ben walking towards her, she takes a deep breath and stands up.


End file.
